There is great strength in numbers and if we put our minds to it, we can get what we want from local, state and national government. We just have to give them our voice.

The Baldwin County Commission held its first meeting with Bob James as chairman. According to him, the commission was requiring financial information from all organizations that receive money from the county. One of those organizations is the Baldwin County Library Cooperative (BCLC) in Robertsdale, which operates under a very tight budget. This wonderful facility helps many Baldwin County residents with computer access and the Bookmobile, which travels to retirement homes and schools.

Liz Reed, BCLC director,  said their funding comes quarterly from the county. As this was the beginning of the quarter, they had just paid bills and their funds were depleted and if a financial statement is required before the next quarter’s funding is given, the BCLC would have to shut down until this issue is resolved. It also meant that the Bookmobile would be stopped. The funding agreement between the commission the the BCLC had been carried out for 12 years with no problem. Why would the county commission require this statement on such short notice?

The BCLC would have to come up with the financial statements by the next meeting and that is only if the commission had room for the topic to be placed on the agenda for the Nov. 15 meeting.

A scurry of activity went through all the county libraries. Many emails were sent and telephone calls were made to inform people of Baldwin County of this situation. There were many phone calls to the commission office and many emails written to the four commissioners pleading the cause of the BCLC.

It is amazing how much power the people had in getting the commission to comply with the wishes of the people. A meeting was held with Reed on Nov. 1, and a contract was signed with the funds deposited in the bank by the end of the business day.

This is not the only experience that shows strength in numbers. Recently in the news, the Netflix movie rental company announced they were going to raise their prices for movies and over 700,000 dropped the service. A series of banks thought better of a debit service charge that was announced a few months ago. Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank of America and others had announced a $5 monthly charge for all debit card activity. Another flurry of emails and phone calls came through with angry customers telling these home offices that they would close their accounts and go elsewhere if they were charged an extra fee. Announced this week was the repeal of the fee charge and all was well again.

People have power.  If only they realized it.

Contact Steimle at valeriesteimle@yahoo.com, www.stregthenyourhome.com or read her blog at www.valeriesteimle.blogspot.com.